US Citizens Are Starting to Be Afraid! 9R Earthquake - Tsunami Threatens, This is the Location
- Scientists warn that there is a threat of a large-scale earthquake threatening areas in the United States. It is said that devastating earthquakes and tsunamis cannot be avoided on the Pacific Northwest coast.
It said scientists knew that a 700-mile-long fault called the Cascadia Subduction Zone, 100 miles off the coast of Northern California that stretches north to Vancouver Island, could trigger a magnitude 9.0 earthquake followed by a tsunami, just like what happened inJapan in 2011.
"30 or 40 years ago, we didn't even know that large earthquakes were possible in the Pacific Northwest," said Diego Melgar, a seismologist at the University of Oregon, quoted by CNN International, Monday (17/6/2024).
New deep imagery of the fault was recently reported in Science Advance. Scientists say the subduction zone is cut into 3 to 5 segments, each of which has its own unique geology.
When a section of the fault off the coast of Washington breaks, it has the greatest potential to trigger a powerful earthquake.
No buildings built before 2005 were designed to withstand the long, powerful earthquake that Cascadia would produce, according to Corina Allen, chief hazard geologist at the Washington Geological Survey. The new tsunami building regulations came into effect in 2016
"We have bridges, buildings, hospitals, schools, all this infrastructure located in places that could potentially generate a tsunami," Allen said.
So can this facility survive the earthquake and tsunami that followed? "The answer is no."
"What keeps me up at night is that I know that we are not taking the steps that we need to, as quickly as we should, to protect our communities," said Yumei Wang, senior advisor for infrastructure and risk at Portland State University.
Buildings made of brick and masonry are the buildings most vulnerable to earthquakes. Wang said wood-framed buildings are particularly vulnerable to the force of tsunamis.
Geological records of the region show that on average a major earthquake and tsunami occurs every 500 years. There is no way to predict when this will happen next, but it is expected to happen again in the next 200 years or less.
It will be a long process and cost many billions of dollars to repair the existing damage. Melgar believes this effort is not in vain.
For those living and vacationing along the Pacific Northwest coast, surviving a tsunami that occurs 15 to 30 minutes after an earthquake depends on how quickly they can reach high ground. But perhaps there is no safe place to go.
"In Washington, most people who live in tsunami inundation zones don't have high ground nearby," Allen said.
In this case, vertical evacuation structures built in tsunami zones are very important. This structure helped save thousands of lives in the 2011 tsunami in Japan.
Only three have been built in the Pacific Northwest, and four more are planned. But Allen estimates that 50 units are needed in Washington alone. Each of the three existing buildings can accommodate 400 to 1,000 people, are up to 76 feet high, and cost varies. The most expensive, worth $62 million, is the Marine Science Center in Oregon.
"The foundation is deeper than the height of the building, like an iceberg. And the structure itself is a bit like a car bumper, so very heavy and large debris can fall on it," explained Wang.
"We know enough about building regulations. We know enough about early warning. We know enough about tsunami evacuation zones so conditions aren't that bad," said Melgar.
However, what is less clear is whether society is willing to invest billions of dollars to prepare for something that may not happen for 200 years.
"This is an expensive problem to solve. Maybe we had more time and could have implemented the systems we needed to survive this event," Allen said.